Users and IT administrators now ask different things of their desktop devices, and these
various needs result in a greater diversity of devices, more choice and better value. The
criteria associated with desktop devices go far beyond performance, because issues such
as cost, power consumption, form factor, useful life and expandability have varying
degrees of importance for many organisations.

The arrival of Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVDs), streaming, and the general decoupling of
software from device hardware have increased the range of options for delivering client
computing capabilities.